Robert S. Becker
For over a decade, Robert S. Becker's independent, rebel-rousing essays on politics and culture analyze overall trends, history, implications, messaging and frameworks. He has been published widely, aside from Nation of Change and RSN, with extensive credits from OpEdNews (as senior editor), Alternet, Salon, Truthdig, Smirking Chimp, Dandelion Salad, Beyond Chron, and the SF Chronicle. Educated at Rutgers College, N.J. (B.A. English) and U.C. Berkeley (Ph.D. English), Becker left university teaching (Northwestern, then U. Chicago) for business, founding SOTA Industries, a top American high end audio company he ran from '80 to '92. From '92-02, he was an anti-gravel mining activist while doing marketing, business and writing consulting. Since then, he seeks out insight, even wit in the shadows, without ideology or righteousness across the current mayhem of American politics.
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Pentagon seeks $200 billion for Iran war as costs surge and Congress pushes back
Lawmakers question the scale, legality, and strategy of a massive funding request as troop deployments expand and the conflict shows signs of escalation.
Balanced budget amendment would put Social Security, Medicare, and core public services on the...
The proposal would make revenue increases extraordinarily difficult while allowing tax cuts to pass more easily, shifting pressure onto widely used federal programs.
Scale raises the ceiling, but fiscal foundations determine whether autocracy or democracy prevails
The implication is stark: democracy is not only a constitutional or ideological arrangement; it is fundamentally a fiscal one.
State Department purge left US exposed as Iran war sent energy prices soaring
Internal layoffs removed the very officials who would have modeled oil supply disruptions, coordinated with Gulf energy partners, and prepared for retaliatory strikes as war with Iran drove gas and crude prices sharply higher.
The Paris Prelude: Why the US and China are moving toward a Cold Peace
Nuanced engagement is an improvement over chaotic confrontation.